7 Ways Social Media is Making You Depressed

Social media can enrich our lives, but too much exposure can result in emotional difficulties.

By Wesley Baines

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Social media has continued to accelerate the rate at which we interact and develop relationships with each other, creating a world connected like never before. We’re now better able to keep in touch with our friends, family, and acquaintances, to peek into their lives despite the obstacles of distance or time.

Beyond the transformation of personal relationships, social media has also transformed the media, passing along unfiltered information at the speed of whizzing electrical impulses. Because of this, we’re now more globally connected than ever—we can be informed of political uprisings, streamed directly from a soldier’s phone, or we can hear proclamations from the pope, directly from his Twitter feed.

But now that the use of social media has become ubiquitous, we’re beginning to see the effects of prolonged exposure.

They’re not all positive.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have found that social media affects mood—in fact, the more time young adults spend on social media, the more likely they are to be depressed.

But, why? How could something that connects us make us depressed? Let’s take a look at the answers to that question and examine 7 ways in which social media can rob you of happiness.